Higher Purpose
by victoriaely
Summary: Carson, Rodney and Lorne learn more about Atlantis and about themselves.


Rodney was waiting by the transporter door for Carson and Major Lorne. They had recently discovered some interesting information in the Ancient Database about a part of the city, and planned to explore it. Unlike most areas, this one didn't seem to have a specified purpose, just a table of numbers whose explanation Rodney couldn't find. The only thing known for certain was that it existed. Rodney wanted to check it out right away, and Elizabeth decided to send a team. Since they didn't know the purpose of the rooms, Rodney decided to take Carson and Major Lorne had the role of protecting them.

Carson arrived, a few minutes later than scheduled, followed by Major Lorne.

"Colonel Sheppard wanted to talk to us about a mission," Carson explained.

"Let's go, then," Rodney said smiling. He always enjoyed exploring, going to new places. He was too curious to be upset by the little delay.

The rooms they were planning on exploring were on a lower level than the control room and Rodney suspected they were built after the main part of the city.

"Why do you think that, Rodney?" Carson asked, trying to understand more and know what to expect. The transporter could take them only to the lower level, so they had to walk for a while. Carson made use of that time trying to understand why was he there in the first place.

"Well, for starters, I would imagine the Gate Room being the first thing you would build; you wouldn't want to be stuck in the middle of an ocean, would you?" He looked at Carson and Lorne to see if they agreed, and continued, "Everything surrounding the Gate Room had to be made next and everything that controlled the gate…"

"And by build you mean equip, right?" Lorne asked, a little puzzled by Rodney's explanation.

"Not really. Of course, they built the entire city at first, but the different areas weren't separated. It was a huge… let's call it hangar, which was divided and organized as they found new things they needed."

"This doesn't sound like a good planning," Carson observed. "What if they realized they needed another tower?"

"I suppose they did have a preliminary planning, but think about it. The city was occupied by the Ancients for thousands and thousands of years. It was inevitable for modifications to be needed."

"How did they add the walls, then?" Lorne asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but they are all made of a super conductor… a metal, which is used in a different way from our cement. Thanks to the characteristics of this metal, they didn't need to worry too much about the foundation, about resistance… But the most intriguing thing is the way the walls connect to each other. It suggests some kind of… growth."

"Like the tok'ra tunnels?" Lorne asked.

"More advanced and more controlled, but yeah, basically, it's the same principle."

"Is there any way to which one was built first? The Ancients have proven to think quite differently form us on several occasions," Carson observed.

"In the control room, studying the way they connected, I could say which one was there initially and which walls were added. We will probably be able to see that there, as well. But there's something else that make me think that this is a new room. Not only newer than the control room, but one of the last rooms they did before leaving Atlantis." Rodney paused for a moment, studying the walls. They had been walking for over an hour and there were little changes in the appearance of the walls. The only change was that there were more liquid vents. When he didn't find anything worth studying, he continued: "But the most interesting thing is that there are very few references to it in the database. Just a few numbers. Not even the surface they cover or the layout of the rooms."

"So you think they didn't have the time to fill in the info in the database?" Lorne asked. This was one reason that seemed plausible.

"Exactly." Rodney answered, satisfaction clear in his voice. All the members of his team had agreed with him, and he was proud of his idea.

"Wonder what it was meant to do…" Carson said, looking at the liquid vents. "Any idea why there are so many here? They seem to be more and more frequent as we move on."

"I don't know. We hypothesized that these have the role of monitoring the rooms… they were definitely involved in building them and they also consume a small amount of energy. For this many, though, the amount of energy would be higher."

"You didn't see it on your readings?"

"No. It must be automated. Atlantis is using this energy without letting us interfere."

"Then the room must be pretty important." Lorne said, observing the walls. "They're almost one next to the other."

"Aye, and the wall between them is different," Carson observed, reaching his right hand to touch the wall.

"Stop!" Rodney approached them and looked closer. "This looks like glass." He then touched it and added: "feels like molten glass."

Carson sighed "How would you know how molten glass feels like, Rodney? "

"I… imagine it feels like that. Let's go on. I'm really curious to see the rest."

They walked for about ten minutes, looking at the walls. There were places where the vents were one next the other and others where the glassy wall was a few meters long.

"Look!" Lorne directed his flashlight to a wall that stretched in front of them, blocking the hallway. It was made entirely from the glassy substance and was completely opaque.

"Just great." Rodney approached it and started touching it, trying to find some sort of door mechanism.

"Maybe this is the end of it." Carson said with regret in his voice.

"No, it looked differently in the city plans."

"I thought you didn't have a map of it in the city plan." Carson said, frustrated that he couldn't fully understand the situation.

"We don't. But we had plans for some of the surrounding rooms, and this is not how it was supposed to end. Come, help me find something… uneven on the wall. There must be some trigger."

"Maybe it's not opening like that." Carson closed his eyes and focused on the wall. For the first time outside of his med labs, he voluntarily tried to make Ancient technology work.

"Doc, maybe I can do it." Lorne offered, knowing that Carson avoided using Ancient technology as much as he could.

"It's okay, " Carson said, touching the wall. "It feels different, it feels like -"

Rodney and Lorne watched in awe as Carson moved through the wall.

"I'm not gonna be able to go there! Damn gene!" Rodney said, frustrated.

"He said it feels different. Let's see." Lorne touched the wall and a few moments later he was advancing, as well.

"How could it feel different? It's a wall." Rodney touched it, trying to focus on the feeling. He realized they were right, it felt like grass. He opened his eyes and found himself on the other side of the wall.

The hallway was now round shaped, with the ceiling much lower, a few centimeters above their heads. There were no vents, just the glassy wall, covered in small, blue squares. They seemed to be made from the same material as the walls, and were as big as child's palm. They were aligned in lines going from the left to the right, over their heads.

"What do you think they are?" Lorne asked, amazed at the sight.

"I have no idea," Rodney answered.

"Are you okay, Rodney?" Carson asked, concerned about his friend's claustrophobia. There was a soft white light coming from the walls, but the space was still tight and Rodney could have found it distressing.

"Yes. It's… beautiful." It was one of the most beautiful things Rodney had seen in his life.

They walked in silence, looking in awe at the little squares. They knew rationally that they were identical, but as they focused on one, they saw unique shadows and shades.

The silence was broken by Carson's voice "It's over." He couldn't hide his regret at seeing there were no more squares on the walls. The wall went on, but it was empty.

"This doesn't make sense. Why end it so abruptly? Why go on with the tunnel?" Rodney asked loudly.

"We should probably head back. It's been a while since we left." Lorne suggested, without enthusiasm.

"Just a minute." Carson went to the left, closed his and touched one of the little squares. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a white room. Before he had the time to look around, he heard a woman's voice:

"Welcome. My name Thyssa."

"Hullo. Where am I?" Carson asked. There was no answer, so he started looking around. The room was empty, but there were shadows… more like fog. As he concentrated on them, he saw them turn solid. There was a book with a writing he didn't recognize, a little box and something that looked like a musical instrument.

"Are these yours, Thyssa?" He received no answer. "Where are you?" Again, he received no answer. He sat down on the floor and closed his eyes. "Who are you, Thyssa?" The room was suddenly filled with music. It was almost unreal. The sounds were gentle, soothing. Every once in a while, he could hear a distinct sound which he supposed was from an instrument similar to the one he had found in the room. When he opened his eyes, he saw the room was different. On one of the walls, a screen was showing images of a big flower field. The images then showed a little village.

"This is your village. This is where you come from." Carson said. "this is the place you love most. But what does that have to do with Atlantis?"

In the blink of an eye, the room transformed. He found himself on one of the balconies that overlooked the control room. Except that he wasn't there, there were no people, it didn't have any of the equipment they had brought. Carson moved forward, trying to touch the railing. It felt real, just like the book and the box had, but he somehow knew this was an illusion, just like they had been.

He closed his eyes and thought of the little village again. The room changed back to the way it was and the screen started showing village images again. After what felt like a few minutes, he could see images from another place, a city, with a more modern architecture and different people. He watched the images, wondering where would they take him next. Then the screen showed images from Atlantis. The chair room, the control room, what looked like private quarters.

Carson realized that the music had changed. It wasn't as calm as it had been at first, but it sounded stronger. It sounded familiar. The room morphed again and he found himself in one of the first rooms that he saw in Atlantis. The room where he saw the hologram of an Ancient woman telling them about Atlantis.

"Thyssa" he said, understanding.

When he opened his eyes, he was in the tunnel, Rodney and Lorne looking at him.

"Well?" Rodney asked, sounding impatient.

"We need to go on. It shouldn't be too long."

"What did you find out? What happened?" Rodney asked many questions, but Carson wasn't listening. He often wondered if knowing the things a person enjoyed were enough to know someone. He felt like he knew Thyssa better than he knew anyone.

They walked past by the empty walls until Rodney stopped them: "There's the end." He pointed towards a wall that blocked the tunnel.

"Let's go there." Carson suggested, walking on.

Right next to the wall, they could see a line of blue squares. A single line that stretched across the tunnel's rounded wall.

Carson looked at each of the stones. He could tell which one was Rodney's, which was Lorne's and which was his. He knew that if he were to touch his stone, he would see all the places he loved most, the places he couldn't reach otherwise. But he wasn't ready to make that journey.

"Carson, what's the meaning of this?" Rodney asked, with a mix of frustration and worry in his voice.

"The stones we saw were… repositories of the Ancient."

"Repositories? What data did they hold?"

"It is more than data… it's… them."

"Coffins?" Rodney asked, shocked.

"Not coffins, Rodney, their memories, the things they loved, everything that made them… them. That's why it ended so abruptly. It ended when the last Ancient left Atlantis."

"Then what is this?" Lorne asked, puzzled.

"This is us." Carson's voice sounded unreal to Rodney and Lorne.

"We're not Ancients." Rodney said, touching the empty wall that ended the tunnel. "We don't deserve to be here."

A soft light surrounded them and they found themselves in a dome shaped room. A woman was in the middle of the room, smiling at them.

"Thyssa" Carson said, recognizing the woman.

"Hello, Carson. Rodney, Magnus. My name is Thyssa. I am what you call an Ancient."

"Is it true? Are we there, as well?" Rodney asked.

"Yes, of course you are. You are Atlanteans."

The three men looked at her, amazed at her words.

"Let me explain." The center platform projected the image of a floating city. It wasn't Atlantis, it didn't have the bold towers, just dome shaped sections.

"This is the first city of the Ancients." Thyssa explained. "When we built it, we started our path to ascension. Those who started it were defeated by one of our enemies. We were not so strong then. When we started building Atlantis, we wanted to make sure that those who have done something were not forgotten. This room was one of the first ones we built." She smiled, seeing the puzzled expression on Rodney's face. "On the path to ascension, knowing who you are is the most important part. That is why we started with this. You, Carson, have seen what it is like." She then projected the image of the balcony Carson saw minutes before.

"This is my favorite part of Atlantis. This is my part of Atlantis."

"As in your property?" Rodney asked. He didn't know what to make of what Thyssa was saying.

"No. This is hard to explain. You have said that Atlantis is sentient."

Rodney nodded. It was hard for him to explain then, but he knew that the city was not just a huge building.

"That's how it is. Each one of us changed it, in their time spent here. And each of us has a favorite part that we… look after."

They all sat in silence, thinking about what she'd said. "Do we have a place in the city, like you do?" Rodney asked.

"Of course you do. You have fought for the city. You left behind everything you had to come here. You are a part of this city and you will always be."

"If the city won't be destroyed," Rodney said with bitterness in his voice. "If this city means so much to you, why didn't you save it, why didn't you destroy the Wraith?"

"On the path to ascension, we all have our purpose, our own path."

"Yeah, I know… meditate, meditate and then meditate some more. We can't just sit around and do nothing. We have to fight the Wraith." He was frustrated. He couldn't understand why they hadn't done anything about the Wraith. "You're ascended now, why don't you destroy them now?"

"For everything, there is a time and a place. We are not in the time, nor the place to address this problem. You are. You have chosen this path. Ascension is not just about meditating, Rodney, it's about finding who you are and giving everything you can to be better. This makes you worthy of being here. This makes you Atlanteans."

Rodney bowed his head. He couldn't understand their actions, but he knew he had to respect their choices. Just like they seemed to respect his.

"These repositories will always be here. You can learn a lot from them. But remember that we are all unique and we all see things differently."

They turned around and walked through the wall to the tunnel. Taking one last look at their squares, they started their walk back to the inhabited part of the city.

"Do you think we'll ever ascend?" Rodney asked.

No one answered. They never considered ascension a purpose, but they knew they did have a purpose. Keeping Atlantis safe wasn't a fight, it wasn't a torment, it was their purpose.


End file.
